In March, 1811, Davout, who commanded at Hamburg, received orders[343] to prepare for seizing Stralsund at the least contravention of the commercial laws. Bernadotte’s steps were evidently taken to accord with those of the Czar Alexander; and at last Napoleon found himself in face of a Swedish as well as a Russian, Spanish, and English war. In the case of Russia, American commerce was but one though a chief cause of rupture; but in the case of Sweden it seemed to be the only cause. In August, Napoleon notified the Czar of his intentions against Stralsund; in November, he gave the last warning to Sweden,--and in both cases he founded his complaints on the toleration shown to American commerce by Bernadotte. Nov. 3, 1811, he wrote to Bassano: “If the Swedish government does not renounce the system of escorting by its armed ships the vessels which English commerce covers with the American flag, you will order the _chargé d’affaires_ to quit Stockholm with all the legation.” He returned again and again to the grievance: “If Sweden does not desist from this right of escorting American ships which are violating the Decrees of Berlin and Milan, and maintains the pretension to attack my privateers with her ships-of-war, the _chargé d’affaires_ will quit Stockholm. I want to preserve peace with Sweden,--this wish is palpable,--but I prefer war to such a state of peace.”[344] Once more the accent of truth sounded in these words of Napoleon. He could not want war with Sweden, but he made it because he could not otherwise enforce his Berlin and Milan Decrees against American commerce. Although a part of that commerce was fraudulent, Napoleon, in charging fraud, wished to condemn not so much the fraudulent as the genuine. In order to enforce his Berlin and Milan Decrees against American commerce, he was, as Cadore had threatened, about to overturn the world. This was the situation when Joel Barlow, the new American minister to France, arrived at Paris Sept. 19, 1811, bringing instructions dated July 26, the essence of which was contained in a few lines.[345] “It is understood,” said the President, “that the blockade of the British Isles is revoked. The revocation having been officially declared, and no vessel trading to them having been condemned or taken on the high seas that we know of, it is fair to conclude that the measure is relinquished. It appears, too, that no American vessel has been condemned in France for having been visited at sea by an English ship, or for having been searched or carried into England, or subjected to impositions there. On the sea, therefore, France is understood to have changed her system.”